PSEi slightly up

THE LOCAL stock barometer rose slightly on Tuesday, overcoming a rough start as the local corporate earnings reporting season started.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index inched up by 1.36 points or 0.02 percent to close at 7,325.76, rising for the sixth straight session. There was P541 million net foreign buying for the day.

The interest rate-sensitive property index led the main index higher as it rose by 1.35 percent, boosted by the monetary easing bias of major central banks. The financial and industrial counters likewise increased slightly.

On the other hand, services counter faltered by 1.98 percent while the holding firm and mining/oil counters also dipped.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.76 billion. Despite the PSEi’s gain, market breadth was negative as there were more decliners (91) than advancers (72).

The PSEi was led higher by RLC, which rose by 2.24 percent while property peers SM Prime and ALI both gained over 1 percent. Metrobank, Meralco and MPI also rose by over 1 percent while URC, AC, BDO and BPI also contributed to the day’s gains.

Outside of PSEi stocks, one notable gainer was DNL, which rose by 0.95 percent after reporting that its core nine-month net profit rose by 13 percent and that it would double dividend payout ratio to 50 percent starting 2016.

Top Frontier, the parent firm of conglomerate SMC, also gained by 0.28 percent in heavy trade.

On the other hand, JG Summit and PLDT slumped by 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively. ICTSI likewise fell by 1.72 percent while SM dipped by 0.33 percent.

Outside of PSEi stocks, gaming stock RWM slid by a hefty 10 percent while retailer RRHI fell by 1.28 percent.

Across the region, stock markets were mostly lower ahead of central bank meetings in the US and Japan.